Quotation by Oscar Wilde

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Dramatic Review (London, Feb. 20, 1886)A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated Saturday Review (London, Nov. 17, 1894)Algernon, in The Importance of Being Earnest Algernon, in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)"Aristotle at Afternoon Tea" Pall Mall Gazette (London, February 28, 1885)

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lying (27) lies (24) knowledge (15) poets (15) poetry (15) science (15) reason (12) beauty (11) errors (10) philosophical (9)

A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young," Chameleon (London, Dec. 1894).

Shortly afterwards, under cross-examination by Edward Carson, Q.C., during Wilde's prosecution of the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel (Regina v. Queensberry, April 3, 1895), Wilde explained this aphorism: "That would be my metaphysical definition of truth; something so personal that the same truth could never be appreciated by two minds."

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